Here's a New Yorker article from 2 years ago about Larry McCarthy, the man who created the Willie Horton ad. Excerpt:

McCarthy knew that showing Horton’s menacing face would make voters feel viscerally that Dukakis was soft on crime. Critics said that the ad stoked racial fears, presenting a little-known black man as an icon of American violence....

McCarthy has rarely spoken publicly about the ad. But in a sworn deposition, given in 1991 to the Federal Election Commission, he theorized that there were two subjects guaranteed to move voters: the economy and crime. “People, they take crime real seriously,” he explained. He later told a reporter that when he first saw Horton’s mug shot he said to himself, “God, this guy’s ugly.” He added, “This is every suburban mother’s greatest fear.”....

According to Floyd Brown, the conservative operative who hired McCarthy in 1988, the Horton ad “was incredibly effective.” Brown maintains that Dukakis’s lead over George H. W. Bush collapsed after the ad began airing. Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster and strategist who also worked on the Horton ad, argues that McCarthy was relatively restrained — there were no photographs of Horton’s victims, for example. And Brown says that the ad became a scapegoat after Dukakis lost. Both men use the word “brilliant” to describe McCarthy. “Larry is not just one of the best ad-makers these days,” Brown says. “He’s one of the best advertising minds this century. You go into a studio with Larry, and you’re watching art. It’s beautiful.”

You could easily run a similar ad here about the guy who was let out early and murdered a real estate agent. These things work because they show vividly the consequences for letting violent criminals out early. That guy was white, but the sentiment is the same.

The really bad impact of these ads is that a lot of governors now knee jerk refuse to ever exercise their pardon powers, even where it looks like a guy was wrongfully convicted and the relevant parole/clemency/pardon board is unanimously suggesting the guy should go free.

I wish Neel Kashkari had the money to run ads like this in Cali. Prisoner realignment should be hung like an albatross around Moonbeam's neck. Along with the crazy train and public schools that exist only to line the pockets of the teacher's unions.

Its' wrong to use Willie Horton to show someone is soft on crime, but it's ok to use a picture of George Zimmerman to show that whites are gunning down blacks who are simply walking down the street while black?

If someone finds a white person who committed a lot of crimes and uses that persons image to show that the person who is running as a democrat (most likely) is soft on crime, is anyone really going to get annoyed or call racism? If people respond to the ad is it because they hate white people, or they have a problem with politicians being soft on crime?

It's ok. lets just make all villains in any commercial and/or movie a white male. So as to not offend anyone based on race or sex.

What I see there, unlike in wish-casting television commercials, where you invariably see statistically unlikely and atypical things like intact Black families at backyard parties with their White friends, if you are going to use a single instance of a dangerous criminal let out early, they probably would be Black, as that depicts statistical likelihood, doesn't it?

All white cops are the racist cops who shot Michael Brown simply for being black. And all the Michael Browns are innocent cherubic angels who's only crime was walking while black. So long as you fit the lefty narrative you can offensively generalize about a group of people based on their race.

How did the Press handle the homosexual black male serial rapist in the South West a few years back? The Democratic diversity campaign must have been in overdrive to control national exposure.

Anyway, criminals come in all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and orientations. The Democrats do a great disservice to the victims and society by protecting the criminals. They do a greater disservice to prospects of assimilation and integration through selective exploitation of local crimes.

The issue and complaint here is that these ads are effective and mean the Democrats might not win.

So, the subject needs to be changed. Now. Immediately.

Ad Hominem works like a charm on low information voters. What, he said my positions suck? Look at him, he's a racist! Don't ask me about that, that's racist! You sexist homophobe! How dare you, have you not decency sir?! Have you no decency?!

I bet most women, including black women, clutched their purses when he got on the elevator.......I don't think he looks like a typical black man, but he certainly doesn't look like a man whip paid his debt and is ready to join society......They always headline and give a big play to those who get cleared by DNA evidence or whatnot. The subliminal message is that America's justice system is racist. If this story gets any type of play, the person publicizing it gets branded as a racist.......The American justice system is imperfect, but the bad calls favor blacks a fair amount of the time. There have certainly been more parolees who murder than murderers who have been unjustly imprisoned.

If any campaign ad shows any person of color it better be in a positive light. Otherwise it's racist. Even if he picture they are showing makes the point they are trying to make. Only white people, and more specifically, only white men can be shown negatively. So if you want to do a video that shows someone is soft on crime you can use the photo of some hardened criminal in the news. But only if he's a white guy. Whitey really needs to stand up for itself more. There is a whole racket out there based on racism and sexism that they haven't been taken advantage of enough.

Don't know what the good time law is, whether it's a farce and whether the guy they are showing in the ad is actually representational of the law being a farce. But they are citing an example of someone that supposedly proves it is. Could they have found a better person to exemplify how bad the law was, other than a black guy? I don't know. But theres some reverse racism going on when you can't use someone as an example who would ottherwise prove your point, simpy became they have a certain skin tone. If the exact ad showed a white criminal would anyone even have a problem with the ad? Maybe, then, the racism is only perceived and not race baiting at all.

I'll note that those pushing the Trayvon Martin case did exactly the same thing. The whole argument was really about a law the left found objectionable and so they trotted out an example of the case that, they said, showed the laws was an ass.At least in this ad the example used matched the law the critics are trying to criticize. In the case of Trayvon there was all his discussion of stand your ground laws and the consequences when GZ never even invoked the defense. I call trayvon Martin and the pushing of it reverse race baiting.

The killer is bat shit crazy. How the hell did he ever manage to be on "good behavior" for 10 years? I gotta believe that the problem is more with the prison administrators than the law as such. My guess is that 4 people are dead because a bunch of prison administrators and psychologists were not doing their jobs.

This is interesting. The Willie Horton ad was good at portraying Dukakis as soft on crime.

The new add is tougher, but why is it race baiting? I was curious about the argument by the Salon writer, so I clicked and found no explanation whatsoever. She just declared the ad race baiting. I think to a liberal mind if you use a black face in an effective negative ad, it necessarily is race bating. My guess is the new add probably will be effective.

So now Dukakis is standing up for terrorists and their abettors? Poor little Duke was born too soon. He would be a mainstream democrat party progressive today, and maybe even elected president by our know-nothing contemporary electorate and the America-hating media that misleads them.

Joey Fournier was 17 years old in when Willie and his cohorts robbed Lawrence Mass gas station where he worked. They beat, stabbed, emasculated Joey and dumped his body in the dumpster. My father was a police detective in Lawrence at the time. Willie was a very violent criminal and well known to law enforcement. It was assumed that Willie was gone for good. Everyone was stunned to discover that Willie was getting weekend furloughs.

Dukakis was an ugly veneer hiding all things unholy in Massachusetts. All the effete goo-goo (good government) snobs celebrated his Harvard Brookline pedigree and nuanced bloviating. While under his watch the Corrupt Midget Billie Bulger ran the State House, his sociopath brother Whitey Bulger ran the Boston underworld, and John Sasso welded the hatchet and carried the bag. The Willie Horton ads encapsulated everything bad about the Dukakis era. Duke is now getting involved in the Boston Bombing trial. What an insufferable douchbag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikko_JenkinsIf the law allows someone like him to get out early and he then goes on a killing spree why is it not fair to peg those who pushed the law that allowed him to get out early as soft on crime. if he was still in prison he wouldn't have gone on a killing spree. So what was the justification for releasing him? Was he a remodeled citizen? Apparently hes so insane he can't stand trial. And yet, he should be released.

Now I know why they used him in the ad. It's not race baiting at all. He happens to be a spree killer out killing because society drpped the ball. The tetxt book case. Whatever his skin tone.

If this were Bush and he released this guy and dems wanted to peg him as soft on crime wouldn they not use this man as an example? Who else would be a better example of the failure of the law, I ask you.